Tag Archives: #digmygig

A fun decorating trend that we are seeing at Southern Accentsis adding a unique 1/2 glass door with lots of character to the pantry or bathroom. Most of our customers who come in looking for a pantry door are looking for a salvaged half glass or 1/3 glass door with unique glass. Textured, stained, or chicken wire glass doors have been a “hot” commodity in our showroom! The beauty of the textured glass is that it lets light into the pantry, but the texture helps to “hide” the contents just enough to camouflage a sometimes messy pantry from a visitors view! Finding half glass doors with existing textured or stained glass in the exact size that you need can sometimes be challenging, but have no fear… we have solutions for our customers. We can take a half glass door and replace existing clear glass with textured glass. We can also customize a solid, multi paneled door by cutting out the top panels and replacing them with textured glass. Another option is to have us custom build a pantry door to your size specifications!

A popular decorating tip, frequently requested by our customers, is the addition of custom, hand painted lettering. Local artist Laura Walker has been lending her talents to many of our customers by hand lettering words onto the glass. The most common addition has been to have the word “pantry” painted on the glass. Some customers have taken it further by including other messages or decorative elements. This trend is not limited to pantry doors only… we’re also seeing this as a popular option for bathroom doors. The opague or colored glass offers some privacy while the hand painting adds a touch of whimsey and uniqueness to the bathroom door.

Local Artist Laura Walker lends her talents to many of our customers requesting custom hand lettering on the glass of their door.

If you are looking for a unique door with loads of character for your pantry or bath, you can view our current selection of salvaged and antique doors online at www.sa1969.com. Our inventory can change daily so visit our site often. Better yet, visit our showroom in person at 308 Second Ave SE in Cullman, Alabama. We can help you with your door selection or work up a custom quote to have a door customized or custom built to meet your specific needs.

Change can be a good thing. It often comes as a result of growth and new opportunities. We are excited about recent changes that have taken place at Southern Accents, specifically within our SA Team. We were thrilled to announce several months ago Kolby’s return! Kolby rejoined the SA Team after a six year hiatus. Managing the showroom, Kolby is available Tuesday through Saturday to help you select the perfect architectural salvage pieces for your next project as well as provide custom quotes for doors and table tops. You can stop by the showroom during regular business hours or give him a call at 877-737-0554.

Another notable change has taken place at our Wood Showroom. John, who many of you have dealt with over the past few years, is no longer with us. John left Southern Accents recently to pursue other ventures. Visit our wood showroom and you will find Patrick, Mauldin or Stephen ready and willing to help you with your wood purchases. If you are looking for reclaimed wood for your floors, walls, ceilings, or any special project, we have a HUGE selection you can browse!! And, we are excited to add farmhouse style table tops to our selection of custom made wood products!

If you’ve never visited our wood showroom, it is located just 1 mile down the road from our main showroom at 250 Janeway Drive in Cullman. Our wood showroom is open to the public during regular business hours. Our two warehouses stay stocked with reclaimed lumber, salvaged barn wood, shiplap, tongue and groove bead board, reclaimed hand hewn and circular sawn beams and salvaged trim. Whether your project is large or small, pay us a visit or give us a call and let us help you with your wood needs!

We are thrilled to announce our participation with The Conference On The Front Porch October 18-19 at The Mill at Plein Air in Taylor, Mississippi. This is the second annual Conference On The Front Porch. The conference aims to explore the significance of the front porch in the American South, both from an architectural, as well as a sociological, perspective. The two day conference explores the origins of the front porch, its role in building and sustaining community, the porch and food, the porch and music, and the porch and its impact on the story-telling tradition in the South. All of these topics and more will be explored. In addition to the lectures and panels, registration includes six meals, a one evening porch concert and a one evening porch play.

The two day conference takes place in a beautiful 12,000 square foot venue built entirely from reclaimed materials and located in the Plein Air neighborhood of Taylor, Mississippi which is a short seven minute drive from Oxford and Ole Miss. Our initial involvement with this conference was through the founder, Campbell McCool. Campbell sourced almost 100% of the salvaged building materials for the venue from Southern Accents. Last year, team member Jason Mauldin was in the area speaking to a class at Ole Miss on the history of architectural elements and represented Southern Accents at the first Conference On The Front Porch. This year SA owner, Garlan Gudger, Jr. will be one of 12 speakers at the highly anticipated event. Garlan will be speaking on the topic of “The Front Porch and Pickin’ Architectural Elements” on Thursday, October 19.

The conference is open to architects, developers, planners, social historians, and lovers of all things porch. Conference schedule, speaker information, as well as ticket purchases can be obtained by visiting theconferenceonthefrontporch.com.

Southern Makers 2017 found us in a new city, a new venue, and a few new additions to our celebration! Despite storms earlier in the week and high temperatures, the weather held out for us all weekend and the viaduct at Sloss Furnaces was the perfect retreat from the mid day heat.

The festivities got underway Friday night at Pepper Place Market with a one-of-a-kind dining experience featuring the culinary delights of 5 southern chefs and special guests Natalie Chanin and Mike Wolfe. The food and drinks were delicious and the company divine! The dinner was a perfect introduction to the weekend festivities at Sloss.

Attendees lined up early outside the 19 feet tall x 32 inch wide custom made, salvaged wood entrance. The gates opened at noon and the crowd poured in, ready to enjoy the offerings of around 100 makers. Event goers were able to sample goods, participate in demonstrations, and interact with some of the most talented artists and makers from throughout the state of Alabama. Maker booths and tents were lined up both sides the length of the viaduct. One end of the viaduct supported one of this year’s new features, a craft beer garden, while the other end was home to live musical performances as bands took to the makeshift stage to entertain the crowd.

Another new feature this year was the addition of graffiti artist Moses Pressnell. Moses painted the side of this trailer Saturday and Sunday during Southern Makers. This beautiful work of art is titled “Fly First”. You can follow Moses and see more of his incredible art on Facebook at facebook.com/mosespressnellart.

The other new addition was the Urban Arts Dance Competition and Demonstration sponsored by Alabama Dance Nation. Watching the highly talented dancers battle it out for the big prize was highly entertaining! And… we can’t forget about the concert Saturday night at Avondale Brewery by Single Lock recording artists including John Paul White and Mia Dyson.

Coming through a jam packed weekend, we have to take this opportunity to say a heart felt THANK YOU!! There is no way we can name everyone by name without leaving someone out, as it took a countless number of people to pull off an event of this magnitude. Every single person who played a part in this event, large or small, was needed and appreciated. Our thanks goes out to all of the Makers, Sponsors, those who have worked tirelessly over the past year to help plan every aspect of this event, the Southern Makers and Southern Accents Team, our venues; Sloss Furnaces, Pepper Place Market and Avondale Brewery, the Volunteers, the Chefs, Brewers, the Security and those involved from the City of Birmingham who helped make this happen, and of course our media sponsor Garden & Gun Magazine. Most importantly, we want to thank the attendees! Without you, all the effort would be in vain. We realize your time is precious and we appreciate you choosing to spend some of it with us!

We’ll be posting photos on our social media accounts in the coming days so keep watch! We also want to see YOUR photos! Please post your photos from this past weekend and tag us with #southernmakers2017 or @southernmakers.

The demonstrations throughout the weekend were a huge success! Casting artists from Sloss Furnaces, pizza making with Bill St. John and broom making with George Jones were but a few of the crowd pleasing demonstrations!

The VIP lounge was hopping all weekend as VIP ticket holders were treated to culinary delights and refreshing drinks in the decked out air conditioned tent!

The Pine Hill Haints returned this year, along with other musical guests, to entertain the crowds.

The Beer Garden was a popular new feature as craft beers from over a dozen Alabama brewers were offered throughout the weekend.

Happy faces from makers and guests alike were common under the Sloss Furnaces viaduct! We hope to see you all again next year!!

We are excited to announce a new addition to the Southern Makers line up this year! There will be an Urban Arts Dance Competition on Saturday, August 12, followed by an Urban Arts Dance demonstration and presentation on Sunday, August 13 at the Historic Sloss Furnaces in Birmingham, Alabama. These fantastic displays of art in the form of dance are included as part of your Southern Makers ticket price!!

Take It To The Streets is a 5 Year Running Urban Arts Open Styles Tournament Dance Competition where dancers from Alabama Dance Nation invite other artists from across the country to come to the Magic City and battle for the loot, $300 Cash to be exact, and the crown! This Tournament will be part of Southern Makers 5th Annual Event on Saturday, August 12. With over 35 accomplished street dancers coming from six different states across the South to compete for the prize, this battle is sure to be a crowd pleaser! Judges for Saturday’s competition will be Ladia Yates, Benji Porter and Michael ‘Kaotic’ Phillips. Music provided by DJ New Era, MC for this event is Jag War.

Sunday, August 13, experience Urban Arts in Motion at it’s finest! Alabama Dance Nation will bring to Southern Makers the best of the best as they explore the Past, Present and the Future of Street Dance. Special Guest Appearances Sunday by Dance Legends: Boogaloo Shrimp aka Turbo (The Movie Breakin), Honey Rockwell (Legendary B-Girl), Kid Dynamo (Legendary Locker) and Orko Romero (Zulu Nation). We are also excited to announce that a presentation of the First Annual Christopher Herndon Exceptional Artist Award will be made to a deserving member of Alabama Dance Nation who has been a consistently, positive force in the street dance community, in addition to being a phenomenal artist.

What an honor it is to have such a prestigious line up and display of dance as part of #southernmakers2017. Join us at Historic Sloss Furnaces August 12 & 13. TICKETS ARE ON SALE AT: SOUTHERNMAKERS.COM

Tickets are now available for this one-of-a-kind dining experience to benefit Southern Makers nonprofit. With special guests Natalie Chanin and Mike Wolfe.

Special dinner guest, Natalie “Alabama” Chanin, is the founder and creative director of Alabama Chanin. She was born and raised in Florence, Alabama, where her company, which creates beautiful hand stitched clothing, is based. Natalie has traveled the globe working as a stylist, costume and fashion designer. In 2013 she won the CFDA/Lexus Eco-Fashion Challenge, an award competition that identifies and celebrates the greatest American designers working in the realm of sustainable fashion. Natalie’s fashions focuses on sustainability at every stage of the manufacturing process – from materials and processes, to cultural sustainability in the form of preserving hand sewing skills. Over the years, Alabama Chanin has expanded to include The Alabama Chanin collection, The School of Making, The Factory Store + Cafe, and Building 14 Design + Manufacturing Services.

Our other special guest for the evening is Mike Wolfe. Mike is the creator and star of History Channel’s American Pickers! While we have all come to know Mike on television as a picker, Mike is so much more than a finder and rescuer of old objects. Mike is an American history buff who’s passion lies in discovering and preserving the stories of the treasures that he uncovers. In addition to American Pickers, Mike is the creator and executive producer of Nashville Flipped, has is own line of American made products and apparel, Two Lanes, and is an avid motorcycle collector and enthusiast!

This very special evening will start at 5:30 PM in the cocktail lounge with libations and a Southern Makers anniversary craft cocktail created by Chris Hastings. Guests will enjoy a five course dinner prepared by a variety of top southern based chefs including: Adam Evans, formerly of Optimist, Atlanta, GA, James Lewis Bettola, Birmingham AL, Alex Harrell, Angeline, New Orleans, LA, David Carrier, Certified Burger, Sea Island GA, and Josh Quick, Odette, Florence, AL. Miami’s own, five-star sommelier Heath Porter will pair wine with courses. Each chef will prepare a special plate to add to this one-of-a-kind culinary experience. The atmosphere and surroundings will complement the dinner with an urban farm-to-table feel and theme. Table flourishes include place settings from McQueen Pottery, cotton napkins by Alabama Chanin, flowers by Stone Hollow Farmstead and more. 29th Street to the historic Pepper Place will be transformed for one night only into a joyful dining room under the stars of Alabama. Dress attire for this event is business casual. A very limited number of tickets are available and can be purchased by visiting southernmakers.com.

We’re a little over 2 weeks out and counting!!! #southernmakers2017 will take place August 12 & 13 at Historic Sloss Furnaces in downtown Birmingham, AL. The list of this year’s Makers has just been released and it is stellar! We are thrilled to welcome back many makers who have been with us from the beginning. We are equally excited about all the new makers who will be joining us for their first SM adventure! You can access a full list of this years Makers by visiting Southern Makers online.

In addition to all of the high quality goods offered in the Makers booths, this year you will be able to get crafty at Southern Makers Beer Garden. Curated by the Alabama Brewers Guild, sample and enjoy craft brews from over a dozen breweries. Beer tokens will be available at the garden entrance for $2.50 each. A 6-ounce pour will be 1 token. A 12-ounce pour will be 2 tokens. During the event you’ll also be able to enjoy demonstrations and workshops presented by several of our makers, along with a street dance battle curated by Creative Mindz.

Tickets for this year’s event are now available at SouthernMakers.com. Single day and weekend passes are available with all children under the age of 10 admitted for free! If you want to get the best BANG for your buck, consider a VIP ticket! For only $85 you get an all access weekend pass, a parking pass, private, air conditioned restrooms, and access to the air conditioned VIP tent. Inside the tent you will have access to complimentary culinary treats and libations from some of the South’s finest makers! This is definitely the way to go but… there are a very limited number of VIP passes available and they are going fast! VIP tickets as well as single day tickets and weekend tickets can be purchased by visiting Southern Makers. Tickets are on sale through August 13th. Tickets will be available at the gate the day of the event but will cost more so make sure you get them early!!

The evening will start at 5:30 PM in the cocktail lounge with libations and a Southern Makers anniversary craft cocktail created by Chris Hastings. Guests will enjoy a five course dinner prepared by a variety of top southern based chefs including: Adam Evans, formerly of Optimist, Atlanta, GA, James Lewis Bettola, Birmingham AL, Alex Harrell, Angeline, New Orleans, LA, David Carrier, Certified Burger, Sea Island GA, and Josh Quick, Odette, Florence, AL. Miami’s own, five-star sommelier Heath Porter will pair wine with courses. Each chef will prepare a special plate to add to this one-of-a-kind culinary experience. The atmosphere and surroundings will complement the dinner with an urban farm-to-table feel and theme. Table flourishes include place settings from McQueen Pottery, cotton napkins by Alabama Chanin, flowers by Stone Hollow Farmstead and more. 29th Street to the historic Pepper Place will be transformed for one night only into a joyful dining room under the stars of Alabama. Visit southernmakers.com for more on the weekend schedule, updates added daily.

Each summer we typically hire a few college guys to help us catch up on some of the grunt work around Southern Accents. Our goal is to work them hard! We want them to put in a summers worth of sweat equity… get them as tired and dirty as we possibly can, and then send them back to school! We believe that everyone should have a “Dirty Job” at least once in their lifetime! Last summer Garrett, Boogie, and Kramer worked with us all summer. Apparently we didn’t work them hard enough because they have returned this year for round two!!

Last summer we nicknamed these guys the “Three Amigos”. In real life, they are the best of friends and have been since childhood. After graduating from Cullman High School, Garrett and Kramer enrolled at the University of Alabama while Boogie opted to head a little further south to Auburn University. We must admit, we all became attached to these three clowns last year and were sad to see summer come to an end, so we are thrilled to have them all back for another round. While all three guys are a lot of fun to be around, they are also hard workers. They’ve done everything from pulling nails and pulling weeds, to sanding beams, loading, unloading, and delivering product. They’ve helped clean, organize and inventory product in our back warehouse as well as help set up for events like the upcoming Southern Makers. When asked what they liked most about working for Southern Accents, they all agreed that they love being able to travel and participate in salvage missions and event setups but the best part of their job was seeing the end result of whatever project they were working on.

We hope to have the Three Amigos working hard for us in a few weeks at Sloss Furnaces as we set up for Southern Makers. And young ladies… just in case you are wondering, they are ALL available! They’ve dubbed themselves “Bachelors with Bachelors”!

We are SUPER EXCITED to announce the dates of our 2017 installment of SOUTHERN MAKERS! The Montgomery tracks lead us North to Birmingham for our next southern adventure.

Tickets are now on sale for the fifth annual Southern Makers, a two-day event happening August 12-13, 2017, under the viaduct at the historic Sloss Furnaces in Birmingham, Alabama. Part of the five-year celebration, is to try a new venue, change things up a bit and keep our event fresh— without losing the quality and spirit at the heart of the event.

Just as our original venue, Montgomery’s historic Union Station, represents movement and architectural beauty, so too does the Viaduct at Sloss but in a different way. The raw space composed of structural concrete material for its own sake, represents movement and a space for the making process. This rings true to our reason for creating Southern Makers back in 2013—bringing together handpicked top talent to explore southern based creativity that enriches lives – in one place for all to experience. We have the same values but we are relocating to a NEW historic environment. The Montgomery tracks are leading us North to Birmingham for a different southern adventure.

The viaduct at Sloss Furnaces in Birmingham, Alabama will be the home for Southern Makers 2017 August 12 & 13.

Make plans now to join us for a day or the weekend! You’ll be able to shop with all of the talented artists and makers, enjoy food and drink from some of Alabama’s finest chefs and brewers, boogie down to live entertainment presented throughout the day on the Southern Makers stage, and sit in on demonstrations from many of our makers. There are a limited number of tickets available so don’t delay! Grab your tickets today and join us for a weekend of fun and creativity at historic Sloss Furnaces!

If you’ve never attended Southern Makers, you have missed a real treat! Join us August 12 & 13 at the historic Sloss Furnaces. This year will be bigger and better than ever!!!

TICKETS NOW AVAILABLE!!

To purchase tickets, visit the Southern Makers website at southernmakers.com. A single day ticket is $24.99 plus taxes and fees, a weekend ticket is $35.99 plus taxes and fees. Tickets at the door are $35.99 plus taxes and fees per day. Tickets are free for children under 10.

Southern Makers is also selling ALL ACCESS (VIP) weekend passes for $85.00 plus taxes and fees.This is an all weekend ticket that includes entry into the air-conditioned marquee partnering with Garden & Gun Magazine with culinary treats and libations from the South’s finest makers.

The event is produced and created by Southern Accents Architectural Antiques in collaboration with Goodwyn Mills & Cawood (GMC). Garden & Gun is the Southern Makers official media partner. All proceeds from the event benefit Southern Makers, a non-profit organization that aims to draw attention to, celebrate and promote southern talent and creativity.

Not a day goes by at Southern Accents that someone doesn’t stop in and pick up a skeleton key… sometimes two, three or a whole handful! Many customers are looking to replace a lost key to open their old door. Others are looking for the small keys that will fit the lock on an old antique cabinet while others just seem to have a fascination with antique keys and are looking to add to their collection. And then there are the jewelry makers… the use of skeleton keys in hand crafted jewelry is currently a hot trend. Once again, tapping into our love of history, we did a little research on keys.

The purpose of a skeleton key is obviously to open a lock. Skeleton keys, also known as pass keys, are designed to open numerous locks, most commonly a warded lock. While some believe that a skeleton key derived it’s name because of it’s shape and resemblance to a skull, the name actually comes from the fact that the key is stripped down like a skeleton to it’s most essential parts: a cylindrical shank with a single rectangular tooth. The shank can be solid or a barrel shank which resembles the barrel of a gun.

This photo shows an example of a barrel shank and a solid shank skeleton key.

The first locks and keys were made of wood and can be traced back to Babylon and Egypt. The locks and keys were large, heavy, and impractical. Aside from the weight, the wood locks were susceptible to brut force attacks. The wood devices were eventually replaced when engineers from Ancient Rome improved the design and began using iron and bronze which provided a stronger, more reliable lock. The keys were smaller and the devices became more practical. Little changed in the design of the mechanism until the mid 1800’s when Linus Yale Sr. and Jr. introduced the modern flat keys. Skeleton keys, however, continued to be used in most houses until after WWII when the pin tumbler lock (or Yale lock) took over. You will find that the doors in many homes built in the 1940’s and earlier still have functioning mortise locks operated by skeleton keys.

This heavy iron lock from Germany and oversized skeleton key sits in one of the front windows of our showroom. The large 8.5″ key is shown next to a normal sized skeleton door key.

Our fascination with keys lie far beyond their practical use. Keys unlock more than just doors. There are many Biblical references to keys, including the passage in Revelation 1:18 where Jesus proclaims to hold the keys of death and Hades. You often hear someone refer to their true love as “holding the key to their heart.” Dignitaries are presented with the key to a city as a symbolic gesture of good will. The Gothic trefoil design found in many of the earliest keys is symbolic of the Holy Trinity. Whether a young boy proudly carrying an old skeleton key in his pocket or a woman sporting one around her neck, there seems to be something magical about keys… it is as if the revealing of some mystical treasure or deep dark secret awaits, that only the right key will unlock!